NEWMAN FAMILIAR WITH POLE

Ryan Newman picked up where he left off last season by winning the pole for Sunday's Nextel Cup Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway.

Newman qualified first Friday with a lap of 23.398 seconds, 156.475 mph over the speedway's 1.017-mile tri-oval. The pole is Newman's third at Rockingham in five races and his fourth in the past six Cup races.

He won the last of his series-high 11 poles in 2003 here last November. That was also his third in a row, following poles at Martinsville and Phoenix. He qualified fourth in the season-ending race at Homestead, Fla., then started 20th in the Daytona 500 last Sunday.

"It's been a long drought," he joked. "It does feel good to be back."

Newman credited crew chief Matt Borland for tuning the Dodge to run faster than he thought it could.

"We have a great package and great horsepower," he said. "I thought we could run a 23.49. That's what I thought we were capable of, but obviously we surpassed that. We had a substantial pickup from practice. It was just a matter of hitting everything right and the guys tuning the car to make it perfect."

Dodges dominated, with Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne and Rusty Wallace next in the qualifying order. Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet was just ahead of Jeremy Mayfield to avert an all-Dodge top five.

"This is the second time that Ryan has beat me out for the pole here," McMurray said. "I think two years ago, when I drove Sterling Marlin's car here, I qualified second to him. That was as good as our car was going to be, so I was happy with that."